15/15 Vision: Hall of Famer Identifies Mahomes’ Super Power

At all times, you stay alive

The blessing isn’t limited to vision in the pocket, either. The coach said Mahomes has always excelled at progressing quickly through his assigned order of potential targets. What separates him is his ability to see downfield when that pocket breaks down.

“Well, for him, it's something he's always been good at,” offensive coordinator Matt Nagy said Thursday. “He's done it quite a bit in his career. And now, I think it's the new guys that we have in this room, some of the newer players, making sure that they understand, at all times you stay alive.”

Vision is one thing. But Mahomes’ no-look vision is what groups him in the superhero category.

Just ask Rashee Rice. In the receiver’s 2025 debut two weeks ago, Rice was happy to stay alive – he’s in his third year now with Mahomes – but he didn’t expect Mahomes to target him without looking in his direction.

“How confident was I? Zero percent, honestly,” Rice said after catching . I kept telling him, he threw me off with that. He no-looked the whole team, to be honest. And luckily, I was just ready for the ball.”

And the gesture Rice made toward Mahomes after the catch, pointing two fingers toward his own eyes?

“Kind of saying, like, ‘I didn't know you was gonna do that!’ But I'm glad we were on the same page.”

Progressively better since Air Raid days

Mahomes first displayed his vision at Texas Tech, according to Nagy. Before leaving to become head coach in Chicago, Nagy was in his first stint as Chiefs offensive coordinator and broke down film before Kansas City traded up with Buffalo to take Mahomes 10th overall in 2017.

But observers who closely follow the Chiefs have seen Mahomes' vision improve over the years. One of those observers is Mahomes.

“You can definitely work on it just through reps,” Mahomes said Wednesday, referring to his ability to process through reads. “I mean, through drills and stuff like that, of just kind of having different things that you use with your coaches, of code words and stuff.

“You have to kind of be on one read and reset to the next one and make the throws and stuff like that. And so, the coaches do a great job of that all offseason and during the season as well. And so, we try to make sure that we're in the right space so I can be better at it each and every year.”

This year, he has 17 touchdown passes, tied with Matthew Stafford for the league lead. Mahomes is on pace for 36, his most since he led the NFL with 41 in 2022. Additionally, his yards per attempt (7.4), passing yards per game (262.4) and passer rating (103.1) are all his best since that 2022 season.

But perhaps the best indication that his vision is better than ever is the fact that no Chiefs target this year has reached 100 yards in a game.